[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 6, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO ELLEN KELLY FAIRBANKS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 6, 2001

  Mr. McGOVERN, Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a dedicated educator 
and administrator, Ellen Kelly Fairbanks, who has recently retired from 
her position as Principal of the Floral Street School in Shrewsbury, 
Massachusetts.
  Mrs. Fairbanks is yet another example of all the hardworking and 
dedicated educators found in Central Massachusetts today. She inspires 
us with her love of teaching, which she has carried with her from the 
time she was a little girl in Iowa playing school with her younger 
brothers. Mrs. Fairbanks began her thirty years in education, teaching 
in Wakefield and Newton. Following time off to raise her two daughters 
Katherine and Martha, she returned to teaching in her new hometown of 
Shrewsbury as a reading specialist at Shrewsbury Middle School and 
later as a teacher at the Calvin Coolidge Elementary School.
  In 1987, Mrs. Fairbanks became principal at the Beal School Early 
Childhood Center. Housed in an abandoned building designed as a high 
school in 1913, this school building experienced a rebirth under the 
leadership of Mrs. Fairbanks. To many the Beal Early Childhood Center 
became one of the most beloved institutions in town. In fact, her 
accomplishments at the Beal Early Childhood Center were so impressive 
that the town of Shrewsbury rewarded her in 1996 by making Mrs. 
Fairbanks principal of Floral Street School, the town's largest 
elementary school.
  Mrs. Fairbanks plans on spending her retirement quilting, traveling, 
researching her genealogy, and spending more time with her friends. 
Without doubt, Mrs. Fairbanks has touched the lives of many and will be 
greatly missed by the over ten thousand students who have passed in and 
out of her classrooms and office.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend Mrs. Fairbanks for her dedication to the 
students of Central Massachusetts and present her as an example of what 
all educators should strive to be.

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